He’s also in a very nice spot to improve offensively. With Derrick Rose back at full strength, Butler will have much more space to operate offensively than he did last year with all the attention defenses need to pay to Rose. He’s a selective shooter as I noted earlier, but he’ll get more quality shots being on the floor at the same time as Rose. With Chicago head coach Tom Thibodeau needing to pay more attention to budgeting his best players’ minutes, having an asset like Butler with phenomenal endurance is priceless.
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Harrison Barnes, Golden State
When Barnes was drafted, the Warriors figured they had a prototypical big wing/small forward. He had a decent rookie regular season where he showed flashes of his brilliant talent and athleticism, but definitely had his moments where the learning curve appeared a little slow.
Then the playoffs started, David Lee got hurt and the Warriors saw something in Barnes that they didn’t completely envision when they drafted him. In today’s NBA where floors are spread through the 3 pointer but size still matters, Harrison Barnes has everything one would want in a stretch 4.
Barnes took great advantage of a new role in the playoffs. He increased his scoring frequency, not only through more minutes but through more shots per minute, and his efficiency didn’t suffer. He grabbed an extra rebound per 36 minutes in the playoffs when asked to play big forward. In the second round loss to the Spurs, he was the one player that the Spurs didn’t have an answer for.
By the end of the series, the Spurs had a beat on how to contain Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, but not Barnes.
This season presents yet another different challenge for Barnes. Lee is healthy again, prepared to step back into his starting big forward role. Plus, the Warriors were able to free up enough cap space to be able to sign and trade for one of the better wing defenders in basketball, Andre Igoudala. The prevailing thought is that Barnes will be relegated to a Sixth Man role.
I don’t think bringing Barnes off the bench is advisable, nor am I convinced that’s the course of action that Golden State head coach Mark Jackson will take.
With a healthy Andrew Bogut, Barnes could be in a great spot to ascend to stardom. He has all the tools and Bogut’s skill set masks many of the weaknesses associated with having Barnes play big forward. Lee is an accomplished offensive player in the pick and roll, but his defensive shortcomings are vast and well-documented. Barnes isn’t necessarily a defensive stalwart at this stage, but there are signs there that he can be an above-average defender, plus his floor stretching ability is a better fit with this current Warrior group than Lee’s pick and roll prowess. Frankly, I think Lee’s skill set is ideally suited for him to be the Sixth Man. Also, if the Warriors had their way, they’d love to move Lee and his gargantuan contract — but that’s a pipe dream in the short term.
Already in the preseason, Jackson is experimenting with different lineups. He started with bringing Thompson off the bench, which I don’t love either. The Warriors have a wonderful future ahead of them. The core of that future is Curry, Thompson, and Barnes. That core can win them a title one day. That fact alone makes it imperative that solidifying their respective roles is the priority. If Barnes is used properly, we may see a bigger jump in his game this season than we do from the other two.
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Reggie Jackson, Oklahoma City
Last season, the Thunder lost their star point guard Russell Westbrook to a knee injury at the worst possible time. Without him, their chances in last year’s playoffs were greatly diminished, although I’ll argue to the death that they would have lost the Memphis series even with a healthy Westbrook, but I digress.
The Westbrook injury they’ve been forced to endure to start this season is much more fortuitously timed. If they have to be without Westbrook, better it’s the first eight weeks of the season as opposed to the last eight weeks.
With that thought in mind, there is an opportunity presented through this Westbrook injury for the Thunder and their backup point guard Mr. October, Reggie Jackson.
Last season during the playoffs, Jackson was thrust into a starters’ role when the stakes were the highest. Because of this, there was a general hesitancy to give Jackson enough freedom to develop his game as a lead guard. However, with Jackson taking over the first 6-8 weeks of this season, giving him more freedom to develop his game in regular-season conditions will not have the punitive consequences it would in the playoffs.
And with the Thunder making no appreciable personnel upgrades in the off-season, developing a young asset like Jackson carries added importance.
The Thunder have had a big void since last year’s James Harden trade. They thought that Kevin Martin could provide a one-year stopgap option but that didn’t pan out very well. Martin was such a liability on the defensive end that Brooks couldn’t use him in some big spots in the playoffs. The other player they got in that deal, second-year player Jeremy Lamb will be looked upon to assume some of that responsibility. Lamb could very well be capable. However, Jackson is such a dynamic athlete, if they could develop him as a scoring guard off the bench, they could have a dimension that could create matchup nightmares.
Jackson is lethal off the dribble with tremendous quickness and end-to-end speed. Where Jackson needs help is in how to harness that ability with a more cerebral approach to the game. He also needs to significantly improve his 3-point shooting. These are all things that will never be developed fully without handing the kid more responsibility. If the powers that be in Oklahoma City are willing to do this, they could have a borderline All-Star on their hands and some people may actually start to forget the Harden trade. In last year’s playoffs, they asked Kevin Durant to do far too much. If they make that mistake again to start this season in Westbrook’s absence, they will be squandering an opportunity that is essential to their internal growth.
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Brian Geltzeiler is the executive producer and co-host of SheridanHoops Radio, and the editor of hoopcritic.com. His father, Burt, was an elite college basketball player for Newark Rutgers in the late 1940s and was drafted by the Tri-City Hawks (now Atlanta) in 1950 by GM Red Auerbach. You can follow Brian, who lives in Livingston, N.J. with his wife and 4 children, on Twitter. – See more at: http://sheridanhoops.com/2013/04/16/geltzeiler-the-envelope-please-part-ii-the-geltzies/4/#sthash.1ZWTxfYF.dpuf
This is a interesting post by the way. I am going to go ahead and bookmark this article for my sister to read later on tomorrow. Keep up the excellent work.
I think Shumpert is a glaring oversight.
How can some of these guys have a “breakout season” when they’ve already had their “breakout season.” Reminds me of a moronic DJ that used to say during her top-10 hits countdown show, “Debuting for the first time…” As opposed to debuting for the second or third time, I guess.
Good article Brian! Always love reading your opinions on players and how you emphasize the defensive end.